In 2017, Rihanna launched Fenty Beauty with LVMH, revolutionizing the cosmetics industry.
TMI began working with Fenty in 2020, initially managing Paid Search & Shopping for Fenty Beauty, then expanding to Paid Social. For Fenty Skin, Fragrance, and Hair launches, we were the agency of record, managing media across Paid Search, Social, Display, YouTube, CTV, and Direct Partnerships.
Challenge
The strong recognizability of Fenty Beauty created a strong halo for the Fenty Skin brand upon its launch, but this was beginning to diminish as the initial buzz from launch subsided.
In an effort to distinguish itself as a competitive skincare brand, Fenty Skin was set to launch a new product: the Cookies n Clean Charcoal Face Mask. The Fenty team wanted to ensure maximum full-funnel impact, increasing overall brand visibility and awareness to drive stronger bottom-funnel results and reverse existing trends. This investment was to be spread across the full funnel, and split between support for .COM and retailers.
Discovery
Organic buzz grew rapidly when Rihanna began posting teasers and showcasing Cookies n Clean on her personal accounts, which created a strong demand even prior to the official launch. As such, incremental investment was added to the media plan to really capitalize on this traction and build upon the organic awareness.
Hypothesis
By leveraging the excitement generated by Rihanna and the Fenty Skin brand, we sought to create a full-funnel plan that used the Rihanna-led creative in a way that would maximize impact. We hypothesized that the best way to ensure visibility and bottom-of-funnel impact was the reach users across multiple platforms, which the incremental investment allowed us to do; with this new budget we recommended to expand beyond “tried and true” platforms to incorporate TikTok, YouTube, and Google Display Network into the media mix. In doing so, we could build TOF and MOF audiences whom we would consistently re-engage in order to drive BOF sales.
Key Findings
Deployment
Retailer investment was consolidated to Awareness-driving efforts, really leaning on assets featuring Rihanna to increase recall and favorability. Meanwhile, .COM investment was used to re-engage these TOF video viewers and increase consideration in the form of Traffic with the use of UGC-first assets to build up product efficacy. Finally, using the audience pools that were built in the TOF and MOF stages, we introduced BOF activations which were conversion-driving campaigns that featured content with strong calls to action.
Results
Early campaign results showed extremely strong results, with multiple platform Brand Lift Study results far exceeding benchmark for Ad Recall (+11.9pt on Meta, +9.86% on YouTube), Favorability (+7.7pt on Meta, +7.69% on YouTube) and Purchase Intent. These strong TOF results ultimately led to strong BOF results as well, with revenue goals being exceeded in our conversion campaigns by over +600%.
+600%
Social Campaign Targets Exceeded
+10%
YouTube Ad Recall
+12%
Meta Ad Recall
+8%
Meta Favorability
